Superhero movies: Thunderbolts*

I probably should have mentioned this earlier, but all of these posts have major spoilers. The movies have been out long enough that it shouldn't matter, but anyway, spoilers are here.

I was very tense while viewing Thunderbolts*; I had expected it to be more fun.  

I based that largely on the participation of David Harbour as Alexei Shostakov (Red Guardian). 

I know Red Guardian is not Ursa Major, but he is probably as close as we are going to get. (Though with DC actually putting King Shark in a live-action movie... what do I know?) 

He was fun, a little, and when Bucky is riding a motorcycle across the desert (rather than trying to be a competent member of Congress) things pick up, but there was this dread and worry all throughout for me.

I thought that maybe I just wasn't in the right frame of mind for action movies anymore, with their constant new complications and danger. 

Maybe I needed to stick to comedies, though that made it a shame that the trailers for comedies all looked so dreadfully unappealing and unfunny. 

If you will recall, the other movies I had seen were Clue and This is Spinal Tap, now joined by This is Spinal Tap: The End Continues. So, either comedies or movies with Michael McKean, and really only old comedies unless they had Michael McKean.

That made me a little nervous going into Superman, but then I really enjoyed it. There was lots of danger in Fantastic Four: Final Steps but it was also fine, so what was my problem with Thunderbolts*?

A lot of my dread had centered around Bob. He seemed so fragile, and so certain to die. It seemed like he had died a couple of times, and then it looked like while there was something left, it was not the part of Bob that I had cared about.

Combined with that, Yelena is in a funk. There is grief over the death of Natasha and guilt over her origins and she is in a pretty functional depression. Alexei has some of the same issues, though he is processing them differently. When they actually talk about it, it's not really dramatic, but it does help.

Putting it together, the stress that I was experiencing during Thunderbolts* was the emotional weight. It does have a different tone than the other movies, and fulfills a different need.

I've been carrying around some grief and problems too. 

There wasn't catharsis during the movie, much like there wasn't really catharsis for Yelena, just help. Maybe catharsis wouldn't even be realistic.

Regardless, it ended up being very affirming to see that these very isolated people with lots of problems who could easily be sent to pick each other off (and anyone left standing after that gets incinerated) could work together and help each other.

Yelena entered the void, not knowing what was there, but caring and believing there was some purpose. (And how brilliant is it that when you give a manic-depressive person godlike powers that they can create a shame spiral around your formative pain?)   

Then the others followed her. It's not that surprising that Alexei did, because he loved her and in many ways acting without overthinking suits him. 

It's maybe not even surprising that Bucky would go in. He is the more traditionally heroic, though he had his own path to get there.

It is pretty amazing that John and Ava went in. 

It turns out that if you don't let the darkness hold you back and hold on to each other tight, even the most apparently doomed people can be saved.

So while Thunderbolts* was the movie that I enjoyed watching the least, it was the one that had the greatest impact, and was perhaps the most important.

That weight was not only something to bring me down. 

Anyway, the next movie I am looking forward to is Coyote vs. Acme (James Gunn is one of the writers), but maybe I do need to see One Battle After Another. 

I don't know; I'll figure it out.